Russian Federation (The Sum of All Fears)
The Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya), more officially known as Russia (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya), is a country located in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 85 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with the European Union (The Sum of All Fears) (NATO), Iran (The Sum of All Fears), Afghanistan, the People's Republic of China (The Sum of All Fears), Mongolia (The Sum of All Fears), and North Korea (The Sum of All Fears). It also has maritime borders with Japan (The Sum of All Fears) by the Sea of Okhotsk and the United States of America (The Sum of All Fears) by the Bering Strait. At 23,649,331 square kilometres, Russia is by far the largest country in the world, covering more than one-sixth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the fourth most populous country in the world with over 443 million people as of 2014. Extending across the entirety of northern Asia and much of Europe, Russia spans nine time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. The nation's history began with that of the East Slavs, who emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, the medieval state of Rus arose in the 9th century. In 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus' ultimately disintegrated into a number of smaller states; most of the Rus' lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion and became tributaries of the nomadic Golden Horde. The Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually reunified the surrounding Russian principalities, achieved independence from the Golden Horde, and came to dominate the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus'. By the 18th century, the nation had greatly expanded through conquest, annexation, and exploration to become the Russian Empire, which was the third largest empire in history, stretching from Poland in Europe to Alaska (The Sum of All Fears) in North America. Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union, the world's first constitutionally socialist state and a recognized superpower, which played a decisive role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the world's first spacecraft, and the first man in space. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian SFSR reconstituted itself as the Russian Federation and is recognized as the continuing legal personality of the Union state. During the 1990s, Russia underwent major economic reforms which transformed the country into a major economic superpower. Russia was not affected by the Asian financial crisis of 1997, and grew stronger ever than under the Soviet era under the leadership of President of Russia Alexsandr Nemerov (The Sum of All Fears). It would later result in World War III (The Sum of All Fears), in which Russia conquered most of Eastern Europe and emerged victorious as well as regained its status as one of the world's two global superpowers. A recognized global superpower, the Russian economy ranks as the second largest in the world by nominal GDP and by purchasing power parity (PPP). Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources, the largest reserves in the world, have made Russia the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas. The country is one of the world's five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction in the world with over 40,000 warheads. Russia is a superpower and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a member of the G8, G20, the Council of Europe, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Eurasian Economic Community, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the leading member of the Eurasian Union (The Sum of All Fears). Category:Nations (The Sum of All Fears)